WWII Plastic Toy Soldiers

Dedicated to exploring the world of Plastic Toy Soldiers. The focus is WWII figures and vehicles in 1:32 (54mm). If you grew up playing with them or simply love to collect them this is the place for you. Comments are welcome and encouraged. Hopefully together we can create something fun and valuable.

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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Schylling Toys is a US firm based out of Boston, MA. They have been around for about 30 years and they make and resell all sorts of toys. In fact they seem to make almost every toy but Toy Soldiers. That is except for a single set of US GIs. I suppose they've done it to be able to check off that category. Not surprisingly, what they have done is to clone (or recast?) the Matchbox GIs. Besides that, there is not much else to say when it comes to Toy Soldiers, so let's take a quick look at their set.

Schylling Toys US Infantry - Part I

Here is another set inspired by Matchbox. These seem to be direct clones of the Matchbox figures, although you do see slight differences, like the missing bayonet on the second guy from the left, the running pose. Despite being clones, I find that the quality of the plastic is fairly good and the level of detail has not been lost.

Schylling Toys US Infantry - Part II

Here you see the rest of the poses. It is interesting to see that the officer pose is missing, the one who is aiming or firing a pistol. Instead we have the guy lowering his weapon, which by the way, might also be missing the bayonet if my memory serves me well.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Dragon Models is a firm based out of Hong Kong. They got started in 1987 and have been going strong since then. Their initial focus was 1/35 model kits for figures and ground vehicles. Since then they have diversified in many directions. They added aircraft to their model kits, they introduced plastic figures, 12" action figures, remote controlled vehicles, diecast vehicles in 1/72, and many other items. They do not sell directly to the public, and in some cases they allow other companies like Revell or Italeri to resell their products under their own brands. In terms of 1/32 WWII plastic, they have not really addressed that segment of the market. They have released a few WWII plastic figures under the Can.Do brand which are essentially whole figure versions of their plastic kits, but even those are 1/35. However they are close enough in size that they could be combined with some smaller 1/32 guys. Their level of detail is actually very good and they come factory painted. The only thing not to like about them are the bases which are a bit oversized, perhaps because they wanted to make the figures taller and easier to combine with 1/32. I only have a few of the sets which they released. Hopefully I can get a few more sets over time. Let's take a look.

Dragon German Infantry - Approach to Stalingrad

These are the basic 4 poses. There is a 5th pose with each set which is much harder to find. Seems like they intentionally produced it in smaller quantities to make it a more appealing collectible. As you can see, the figures are very well detailed and the paint work is done quite nicely. I bought these guys as a set of 12 figures which had 3 of each pose.

Dragon German Infantry - Barbarossa 1941

The weapons and the bases have to be glued to the figures. As you can see, some of the bases have a slight grade on them and might make the figure seem like it is not standing straight. Also the thickness of the bases is not ideal in my opinion. These guys do not depict much action, but other sets do have poses in fighting poses.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

If you like big machines, the Air and Space Museum at Dulles, Virginia is the place for you. Their collection includes both civilian and military aircraft, since the beginning of aviation to modern times. They also include some amazing items related to space travel such as capsules, space suits, satelites, etc, but pehaps the crown jewel of this museum is the recently retired Discovery Space Shuttle. In terms of military aircraft the collection covers all 20th century conflicts from WWI through the Cold War, and it includes not only domestic craft, but also some captured foreign planes. I have been to this Museum a few times, and every time I enjoy it as much as the first time. Below are some pictures I took during my most recent trip. Clearly, I have a bias towards the WWII items, but I also took a couple snapshots of some other cool things. Let's take a look.

The Marine Corps Museum, located in Quantico, Virginia, chronicles the history of this distinguished US military unit from its origins as a naval infantry detachment aboard colonial era ships charged with defending against or acting as a boarding party, as well as defending the captain against mutiny from sailors to its modern day deployments. The Museum is nicely done with many impressive and very well made life size dioramas, vehicles & weapons displays, videos, and lots of material to read as you go along. I recently visited it for a third time, and it was just as interesting as the first. This time I did take the opportunity to document some of its displays, namely those depicting the conflicts of the 20th century. Let's take a look.

Harrier fighter jet hanging at the main lobby. Note that the Marines have their own air units.

Life-size diorama of a helicopter landing, something which became quite useful during the Vietnam War.

Close up of the landing crew. Note the high level of detail on the figures.

A WWII era Corsair.

A WWII diorama depicting an apmphibious landing. Could very likely be at Tarawa.

A wounded man taking cover against the sea wall. Hard to say that he is not real!

The men jumping off the Amtrak and charging off the beach.

Overcoming the seawall.

Urging the men to follow, despite the flying lead!

The Amtrak MG providing some covering fire.

A marine unit charging up a street in Mexico Ciity during the war of 1847.

A rifled artillery piece.

An early armored vehicle, of the WWI era.

Hand to hand fighting at Belleau Woods.

Some German casualties at Belleau Woods.

A WWI Browning Machine Gun.

WWII era medic tending to the wounded.

An updated Browning MG -to be water cooled- being used in the Pacific as AA defense.

A WWII Stuart tank.

WWII era US weapons.

Some more WWII era weapons. Note the flamethrower, which came in quite handy to deal with caves and bunkers in the Pacific.

WWII era Japanese weapons.

Some more WWI era Japanese weapons, including their portable MG and a light mortar.

WWII era Japanese Pistols.

WWII Anti Tank Gun.

A 1/16 scale (my estimate) diorama of the Tarawa landing.

WWII Sherman in action.

One of the famous flags flown over Iwo Jima.

The standard issue M1 Garand.

A Korean War Pershing Tank.

A landing craft such as the ones used at the Incheon landings druing the Korean War.

About Me

Toy soldier collector and WWII history enthusiast. My primary focus is 1:32 plastic figures and vehicles. I also enjoy modeling terrain and buildings to provide some background scenery for the figures.